Naval History Forums

It's still Friday the 13th here in the states and I'm reminded of the battle fought on Friday the Thirteenth of Nov 1942 near Guadalcanal.

The American force that early morning consisted of 13 warships. The Task Force was designated TF 76 which the digits added up to 13. USS Fletcher’s bow number was 445 which add up to 13, and after midnight it was Nov 13th 1942 –Friday.

Its easy to place disasters and mishaps on to superstition.

But is their any logic to it - or mere coincidence?

As for Friday the thirteenth - I'm sure that a lot of good, happy events have happened on this date, and of course being happy events they are not tied in with the superstition, which is totally overlooked.

Oddly enough but... here goes...

" Roach, John. "Friday the 13th Phobia Rooted in Ancient History". National Geographic Society. Retrieved 15 June 2014. "According to a 1993 study in the British Medical Journal, however, there is a significant level of traffic-related incidences on Friday the 13th as opposed to a random day, such as Friday the 6th, in the UK.""

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_th ... te_note-19

Read the rest of that quoted paragraph... and a different perception is obtained

RF wrote:Read the rest of that quoted paragraph... and a different perception is obtained

In the Netherlands.

RF wrote:Its easy to place disasters and mishaps on to superstition.

But is their any logic to it - or mere coincidence?

As for Friday the thirteenth - I'm sure that a lot of good, happy events have happened on this date, and of course being happy events they are not tied in with the superstition, which is totally overlooked.

I agree. It is just a bit of trivia not to be taken too seriously, and of course there is long tradition of superstitions among sailors.

Friday the 13th as a superstition goes back to when King Philip IV of France moved against the Knights Templers on Oct 13th 1307.

An example of superstition among sailors in the Royal Navy is that HMS Prince of Wales was an unlucky and/or hexed warship. In the Kriegsmarine it was Deutschland/Luetzow.

Dave Saxton wrote:An example of superstition among sailors in the Royal Navy is that HMS Prince of Wales was an unlucky and/or hexed warship. In the Kriegsmarine it was Deutschland/Luetzow.

Not the Blucher ???